Pedestrian Crushes Car

In real life, when a pedestrian is hit by a car, they suffer physical trauma; as a result, automobiles cause more deaths than any other machine on the planet. While that statistic still applies to drivers, you can expect a number of pedestrians in fiction to hold their own.

A martial artist may punch through a door without breaking their hand and if a super hero can stop a locomotive by standing in front of it, don't expect lighter vehicle to survive. Motorcycles? Not a chance. Automobiles? Straight to the junkyard. Aircraft? Not if there's a flying brick. Metal siding crumples like tinfoil, engines get tossed aside, frames crumple, and passengers will be stunned.

In one Richie Rich comic book story, Irona the robot maid (female design) is on a date with Steelo, a male-design robot when a car tries to run the red light while they are crossing and in the way. No effect on the robots. The car is comprehensively totalled. This being a kid's comic book, the driver is merely stunned.

In several Bamse episodes, Vargen has tried to run over Bamse with his car. One example is in the movie Vargen šter dunderhonung, after Vargen had robbed Katta Lo's candy shop. It usually ends badly for the car. Picture◊

The X-Files has the episode "Salvage", which starts out with a car being almost cleaved in half after running into someone.

A recurring bit on Smallville when young Clark Kent saves a pedestrian from being hit by a car or bus, which crumples around Clark.

In the first episode of Lois & Clark a pre-Suprman Clark stops a city bus from hitting a pedestrian. After the event, the bus driver gets out to check on the bus and sees Clark's handprint in the metal of the bus.

In one episode of The 10th Kingdom, a troll wandering around New York city is hit by a car; he suffers no injury, but the car is badly damaged.

One Tosh0 episode had a Web Redemption for a man who got hit by an ice cream truck while dancing in the middle of a street. It ended with the man starring in a music video where an ice cream truck hits him again only to get demolished instead.

Music

The music video for "Rabbit In Your Headlights" by UNKLE featuring Thom Yorke. In it, a homeless and seemingly crazy man in a thick jacket is walking in the middle of a road through a busy tunnel. He gets hit a few times by passing cars but always gets right back up and continues walking and ranting to himself. Eventually he begins shedding his clothes. At the climax of the song he suddenly stops, shirtless, and holds out his arms as a car barrels towards him. It crashes into him as if he's immovable◊.

The first Final Fight game has a minigame where characters can beat up a car with their bare fists and there's a time limit. Later used for Street Fighter II, where it's probably more well-known — though it doesn't have the hapless owner showing up and breaking down in despair.

[PROTOTYPE] and its sequel treat cars as little more than rollingammo and even tanks can be literally tossed aside. And forget about them running over the player character, he's a lot heavier than he looks.

In the Looney Tunes short "Dough Ray Me-ow", a parrot tries to kill a cat by having him play in the railroad track as the train is coming. The train is totaled in the collision, but the cat steps out with nary a scratch.

In the Looney Tunes short "Dough Ray Me-ow", a parrot tries to kill a cat by having him play in the railroad track as the train is coming. The train is totaled in the collision, but the cat steps out with nary a scratch.

In the first episode of Lois And Clark a pre-Suprman Clark stops a city bus from hitting a pedestrian. After the event, the bus driver gets out to check on the bus and sees a handprint where the metal of the bus folded around Clark's hand.

One Tosh0 episode had a Web Redemption for a man who got hit by an ice cream truck while dancing in the middle of a street. It ended with the man starring in a music video where an ice cream truck hits him again only to get demolished instead.

Does this trope apply to all vehicular collisions that defy physics by harming the larger, tougher object more than the smaller, softer one? Or is it just pedestrian-vehicle collisions? Here are some examples that fit the broader definition:

Minecraft lily pads, when hit by a boat, used to stay in place and break the boat. This was changed in 2012 so that the lily pad is knocked loose instead.

In Cruis'n USA, running into one of the trees or lamp posts lining the side of the road causes it to fall forward like a cardboard cutout. The car proceeds undamaged.

The Majin Buu example could use a bit more context, since it hardly tells us anything, except he had fun with a car. Was it trying to run him over as per the trope, or was it parked? And why did it happen?

Related: in Top Secret!, two men are having a train-top battle. One sees that the train is about to go under a bridge, and ducks-and-covers. When the other guy hits the bridge with his mid-back, he plows right through the bricks, dusts himself off, then motions for the other guy to get up and start fighting again.

In one Richie Rich comic book story, Irona the robot maid (female design) is on a date with Steelo, a male-design robot when a car tries to run the red light while they are crossing and in the way. No effect on the robots. The car is comprehensively totalled. This being a kid's comic book, the driver is merely stunned.

Many, many, many jokes about Eastern European (and British) cars manufactured during the Cold War involved this. If it was mentioned on The Alleged Car's real life section, it probably had this joke made about it.

In several Bamse episodes, Vargen has tried to run over Bamse with his car. One example is in the movie Vargen äter dunderhonung, after Vargen had robbed Katta Lo's candy shop. It usually ends badly for the car. Picture◊

The music video for "Rabbit In Your Headlights" by UNKLE featuring Thom Yorke. In it, a homeless and seemingly crazy man in a thick jacket is walking in the middle of a road through a busy tunnel. He gets hit a few times by passing cars but always gets right back up and continues walking and ranting to himself. Eventually he begins shedding his clothes. At the climax of the song he suddenly stops, shirtless, and holds out his arms as a car barrels towards him. It crashes into him as if he's immovable◊.

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